When govt spend our money, no picture, no sound. Where is the transparency?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Mah Lay Choon, a spokeswoman for GIC, declined to comment on the transaction.

Andrew Dowler, a London-based spokesman for Blackstone with RLM Finsbury, declined to comment.

Gordon Simpson, a spokesman for British Land at RLM Finsbury, declined to comment on the sale.
Singapore’s GIC Said to Buy Blackstone’s Broadgate Stake

By Hui-yong Yu and Klaus Wille - Aug 21, 2013
GIC Pte., the Singapore sovereign-wealth fund, is the buyer of Blackstone Group LP (BX)’s stake in London’s Broadgate office complex, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction.

GIC is buying 50 percent of Broadgate, a cluster of 16 office buildings, shops and restaurants on 30 acres (12 hectares) in London’s main financial district, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the deal is private.Bloomberg News reported two days ago that Blackstone agreed to sell the stake for more than 1.7 billion pounds ($2.7 billion).

Mah Lay Choon, a spokeswoman for GIC, declined to comment on the transaction. PropertyWeek.com reported earlier today that the fund was the buyer. Andrew Dowler, a London-based spokesman for Blackstone with RLM Finsbury, declined to comment.

The purchase is the latest trophy acquisition for GIC, formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corp. The fund last year invested in 101 California St., an office towerin San Francisco’s financial district, and in March acquired the Grand Wailea in Maui and four other resorts from a group including Paulson & Co. for $1.5 billion.

GIC had 10 percent of its assets in real estate globally in the 2012 fiscal year, according to its annual report. The fund, which is prohibited from investing in its home country, manages more than $100 billion of Singapore’s reserves.

The sale of the Broadgate interest would “certainly be among the biggest office deals” in Europe, according to Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York-based property-research firm. New York-based Blackstone bought the stake from British Land Co. in a 2009 deal that valued the complex at 2.1 billion pounds. The private-equity firm put money into improvements and agreed to hold its interest for at least three years. British Land retains the other half of Broadgate.

Gordon Simpson, a spokesman for British Land at RLM Finsbury, declined to comment on the sale.


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